1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a range of motion exercise seating device in the form of a stationary chair or wheelchair and wherein a seat unit of the device may be moved by an individual seated therein in a rocking, swinging or gliding motion relative to a primary frame to which the seat unit is mounted.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
There have been numerous innovations directed to improving individual seating structures to facilitate an individual's health and comfort as well as to increase the utility and ease of use of such structures. By way of example, seating structures have been designed to promote health by permitting either active or passive muscle movements to facilitate healing and/or to promote a patient's circulation. Some such seating structures are designed to allow an individual to control a rocking, gliding or swinging motion of a chair relative to a support to thereby provide a means for generalized exercise as well as to provide a form of relaxation. Some of these gliding, rocking or swinging type structures also include means for limiting or preventing seat movement to provide stability when an individual is being seated or when rising from a seated position.
Many individuals lack sufficient strength to sit or stand without assistance. Therefore, other seating devices have been designed to include components for assisting an individual to either be seated from a standing position or to rise or stand from a seated position. Other seating devices include structures that are convertible from stationary seating units to mobile or movable units such as wheelchairs. Such convertibility provides increased utility for a seating unit whereby an individual who is not ambulatory can be moved either by their own strength or by assistance from others.
Unfortunately, many prior art seating structures which are designed for multi-purpose uses are often too complex to be easily usable and/or are to costly to be readily available for those with limited economic resources or without necessary health insurance. Therefore, there is a need to provide a seating device that is economic to produce and yet which can be used for limited active exercise by creating motion of a seat relative to a support frame to promote user health through stimulation of circulation, muscles, and neurocirculation and neuromuscular systems. There is also a need to provide such a seating device that can further be locked to provide for a stable seating unit and that is also adapted to be converted quickly for wheelchair use and which also provides an additional utility of being capable of functioning as a seat assist device.